We're just hoping that with newer and more modern cars, the company's inimitable style and character aren't left by the roadside.
It’s the end of an era for the big motor in the car built in a shed. Morgan Motor Company has announced the end of the V8-powered Plus 8 and Aero 8 cars. But with that sad day comes a celebration. And a hint of what’s next, as the company teases what will be a much more modern, but hopefully not more conventional, car.
The tribute comes in video form. The short film features Morgan Chief Test Driver Keith Dalley. Dalley has driven every aluminum chassis Morgan V8, and more than 1,300 V8-powered cars from the company. He started with the company in 2000. Just before they launched a modern era of V8-powered cars.
That doesn’t mean modern by Morgan standards, either. It was a thoroughly modern BMW V8 that stepped in after the 1950s-vintage Rover aka Buick V8 was no more. Originally 4.4L and 329 hp, it was later upgraded to a 4.8L, 355 hp spec. While the engine was originally meant to silently propel executives in the BMW 7 Series, Morgan let it off leash a little bit more.
It was an astonishingly modern car, too. The Aero 8 was an all-new, all aluminum car. The company’s first all-new model since the 1960s. The only wood here was on the dashboard.
In the video, the last two V8-powered Morgans go for a drive in the British countryside. Down narrow lanes and winding bits of tarmac. The final Aero 8 and the final Plus 8. It is both an anniversary and a wake. 2018 marked both 50 years of V8s for the car and the last ones they’ll produce. The last Plus 8 is also the 300th of that model that Morgan has built. Both final cars are destined for a place in the company’s heritage fleet. Hopefully that means a future of their burbling exhausts bouncing off of stone fences and not sitting parked in a museum.
At the end of the video, hope. An all new car is coming. Soon. Morgan calls it the “Wide Body.” For now at least. It will get an all-new aluminum platform. The car will also use a powertrain “never before installed in a Morgan.” That doesn’t leave many options. Maybe something electrified? It sounds like a turbocharged V6, but with today’s engineering, engine sounds can be very misleading.
“The 2019 launch of this car is the culmination of several years of unprecedented investment in Design and Engineering for Morgan. This has produced the most advanced development programme in MorganÕs history, the results of which we cannot wait to share with our customers worldwide,” said Morgan Technology Director Graham Chapman. The company says the new car will be the most dynamically capable production Morgan ever.
We’re just hoping that with newer and more modern cars, the company’s inimitable style and character aren’t left by the roadside.
Keyword: Last Of the Morgan V8s, But Something New This Way Comes